If you would stand with me this evening for the reading of God's Word. Psalm 68, we're going to look at verse number 11. Psalm 68 and verse number 11. The Lord gave the Word. Great was the company of those that published it. The Lord gave the Word. Great was the company of those that published it. And if you would look over to Psalm 138. In verse number two, I will worship toward thy holy temple. Psalm 138, verse number 2, Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the blessing it is that we can again gather tonight and worship you together. Thank you, Father, for the songs that we've been able to sing and the messages of each of those songs, the specials this evening as well. We thank you, Father, for good songs, good hymns, good spiritual songs, Father, that help us to focus our mind upon you and what you've done for us. Father, for the reminders that those songs give to us of so many truths that we find in your Word. Father, I pray you bless your Word tonight as we look at it, this particular subject matter. Lord, that you just teach us tonight and help us to have a greater understanding of this topic. And Father, we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Psalm 68, verse 11 speaks of God's word and the Lord gave the word. And great was the company of those that published it. And then in the other passage we looked at, it says that he has magnified his word above all his name. So we consider the Word of God tonight an issue that we've hit on this topic before, and I'll continue to hit on it every year probably, maybe a couple times a year. We'll touch on this issue. of the Word of God and specifically, since everyone in here speaks English, specifically the King James Bible and why do we hold it and is it really an important issue? Is it really even an issue at all? Should we really make a big deal out of that? We consider the two verses that we looked at that God gave the Word, the Lord gave the Word. And then Psalm 138, verse number two, that He's magnified His Word above all His name. It's an important issue that we know what the Word of God is and how important that is. It's our sole authority for faith and practice. There's nothing more important than the issue of, you know, to what degree can we have confidence in the Bible that that we're reading? Can we really have confidence in it? Can we truly trust every word? Or are there some things that we just can't trust? We're just not quite sure of the wording. Maybe the wording should be different. Should it be translated differently? Or should maybe even a verse even be in our Bibles? Should we even take doctrine from certain passages of Scripture? Because according to the footnote in my Bible, this whole section of ten verses or three verses or five verses shouldn't even be in the Bible. And so should I even worry about what those passages say? Should I make an issue of a doctrine maybe that those verses teach? So this is an important message. We're dealing with the word of God. We ought to have an understanding of what is right and what position we ought to take. The Bible says in Proverbs 30 and verse number 5 that every word of God is pure. Every word of God is pure. Every word. The Bible says in 1 Peter 1 verse 25 that the word of the Lord endureth forever. In 2 Peter 3 and verse number 2, it says that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets. Well, what are the words? Are the words really important? Well, Peter says that we might be mindful of the words. Not just the thoughts, not just the ideas, not just the gist of the matter, but we ought to be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets. In Jude verse 17, He said, but beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we're told over and over, and there's a lot of verses in the Scripture that deal with God's words, the very words of Scripture and how important the words are. And one that maybe might come to your mind is in Matthew 4, and verse number four, we find an interesting Just really kind of a side note here in Matthew 4, one of the blessings that we have with the King James Bible, you know, there are places with both the Hebrew and the Greek that if they were translated word for word into English, it wouldn't make any sense to us because things are expressed differently in those languages. It's just the same in Spanish. There are certain phrases, certain words, certain concepts that translated literally. We'd be thinking, what are you talking about? Well, Jose mentioned one of those recently with a woman being with child. What's the phrase? Darla Luz? She's with light, to give light. If you ever heard that about a woman, you'd be thinking, she must be expecting. That's what that means. No, it doesn't mean that to us, and so it has to be translated. We don't give a word-for-word translation if we want someone to understand that phrase in English. It has to be translated differently than just a word-for-word. And there's situations like that coming to English from the Greek and the Hebrew where there are words that Because of the context, because of how it was written, we have words in our King James Bible that are in italics. And those words in italics are to tell us that that word or words were not specifically in the Greek text or the Hebrew text, but because of, for it to make sense in English, had to be supplied. And we're going to see one of those here, not in Matthew 4 and verse number 4, But in the verse, we're gonna go back to Deuteronomy here and look at the verse that this translates. But very important thing that Jesus said here, Matthew four and verse number four. But he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Every word. How important then is every word? And again, this is just a side note. Back in Deuteronomy eight, verse number three. where Jesus is quoting here. When he says it is written, he's quoting out of Deuteronomy 8 and verse number 3. And in that text, it says, And he humbleth thee, and suffereth thee to hunger, and fed thee with matter which thou knewest not. Neither did thy fathers know that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. And in that text, If you're looking in your King James Bible, the word word, but by every word, the word word is in italics. It's not in the original. It was supplied for us in order for it to make sense in English, and yet that's the exact word that should have been supplied for us. That's the word that Jesus used when he was quoting that reference. in Matthew 4, verse 4. In Matthew 4, verse 4, the word word is not italicized. That's the word that Jesus used, and it's important for us to understand that every word is important. As we read our Bibles, can we trust the words that are there? Because God told us that He would preserve His words. And Psalm 12 is a very important passage concerning the preservation of God's Word. Many others as well, but Psalm 12, verses 6 and 7, It says that the words of the Lord are pure words. As silver tried in a furnace of fire purified seven times, thou shalt keep them, O Lord. In the context, what's he going to keep? What's he gonna guard? What's he gonna protect? What is he gonna preserve? Thou shalt keep them. The context is the words of the Lord. So thou shalt keep them, O Lord. Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. If you look at a newer version, most newer versions will, when it talks about thou shalt preserve them, it changes words to that, you know, you're gonna preserve the saints. You're going to preserve your people. You're going to preserve them forever and ever. You're going to preserve people forever and ever. But the context are the words of the Lord. And God, He says, thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. God's going to preserve His word. And Psalm 33 and verse number 11 says that the counsel of the Lord standeth forever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations. Where do we find the thoughts of God's heart? We only find it in the place where He's revealed those thoughts to mankind, He's instructed them to write those thoughts down, and we have them in the Scriptures. If I come up to you and tell you, let me tell you what the thoughts of God are, and I start just telling you words that aren't found in the Scriptures, aren't found here, don't believe that they're God's words. Don't believe that it's His thoughts. They're just my thoughts, and I'm just thinking, I think this is what God thought. We don't have to think what God thought. He's told us what He's thought. His counsels, which were told standeth forever, and that his thoughts to all generations, we have those written down for us in the scriptures. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. He's given us his words that he wants us to have. In Psalm 119, verse 89, it says, forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. In Isaiah 40 verse eight, the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. We can trust God's, we can trust that his promises are sure that there will never be a time, there never has been a time, there never will be a time when God's word hasn't existed. Now I'm not saying today that the King James Bible has always existed. You know, if it was good enough for Paul, it's good enough for us, okay? There are some people that, say such things, okay? But God has preserved his word. And we have it for us today in the King James Bible. And we're gonna see some reasons for that. Jesus told us that heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Not just my thoughts, not my ideas, but my words shall not pass away. Peter said that we're born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible. Incorruptible means it's not gonna rot away. You might have an apple or a piece of fruit that when part of it's rotten, maybe you throw the whole thing away, but a lot of things you just cut out the bad spot and you eat the rest of it because only a part of it's corrupted, only a part of it's rotten, only a part of it has wasted away and the rest of it's still good. That's not the case with God's Word. There's never a part that just gets corrupted where we have a few parts that are bad or a few parts that are missing because they've been corrupted. No, it's incorruptible. It's perfect, and it's perfect forever. And the word of the Lord endureth forever, and we can trust God's word. So the issue of the King James Bible is, does that really matter about the King James Bible? Well, it matters a lot because of, Bibles are translated, English Bibles are translated from various manuscripts, and those manuscripts are greatly divergent. Just in the Gospels alone, the text that the King James Bible was translated from and the text that most modern versions was translated from, just in the Gospels, vary over 3,000 times, at least over 3,000 times, just in the Gospels where they're different. And it's not just a matter, I mean, some of the differences are, you can see, are small differences. A letter here or there. But some of them are big differences. Some of them are whole words that are missing, not just letters that are changed, not just tenses that are changed, not just moods that are changed, but words that are completely left out or verses that are completely left out. We consider the received, what we call the received text that underlies the King James Bible, written in the, as far as the New Testament was written in Koine Greek, the common language of, in the time of Christ, the common language of his apostles during that timeframe. And 95% of all the manuscripts that we have today, whether they're full manuscripts, whether they're a portion of it, whether maybe it's in a song book where a portion of scripture is quoted, or whether it's in someone's writings where they quote a passage description, we have a copy of that or a part of that. 95% of all the text that we have available, whether it's a few words, whether it's a whole book, 95% of them are part of the family, you could say, of manuscripts that underlie the King James Bible. The other 5% are based on what you'll find in a lot of footnotes. In some Bibles we will say that the oldest and best manuscripts don't have this verse. And when they're talking about the oldest and best manuscripts, they're talking about what we call today the critical text, which was written in classical Greek, and there's over koine Greek words that have no equivalent in the classical Greek language. Again, only 5% of the manuscripts that we have fall into that category. And even with themselves, between themselves, they disagree with each other. Again, in the Gospels, they disagree with each other over 3,000 times. They don't even fit together themselves. in just about all modern versions in English are translated from that family of manuscripts. It was compiled by two unbelievers, two infidels, Westcott and Hort, that denied the accuracy of the scriptures. They were involved in the occult. And we consider their manuscript compared to the manuscript that the King James Bible was translated from. It's shorter in words by almost 3,000, over 2,800 words shorter. That is the equivalent if you just took out 1 and 2 Peter out of your Bible. That's about the equivalent of the number of words that aren't in that critical text. There's whole verses that are completely missing. If you wanna just turn to a few of them in Matthew 17 and verse number 21. And one of the things that many will say today is that the things that are missing they don't affect any doctrine. It's a non-issue. They don't affect doctrine. Well, let's just look at a couple of that and see if that's true. In Matthew 17, in verse number 21, then said Peter to him and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Till seven times? I'm sorry, wrong chapter. So that wasn't the right one. Verse number 21 of chapter 17. Here's this demon-possessed boy. The disciples couldn't cast him out. And so the father brings a child to Jesus. Jesus casts him out. And later on, the disciples ask him, well, why couldn't we do that? And the answer is, how be it this kind goeth not out by prayer and fasting? Specific answer to a very specific question. And there's a lot of doctrine in that verse. And yet that verse, you won't find it. It's skipped. In Mark 9, in verse number 44, there's again over 45 verses we could look at. Just look at a couple of them here. Mark 9, verse number 44, whether a worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. Verse number 46, also missing, whether a worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. That's a doctrinal issue, and it's an important issue. In Mark 16, if you have footnotes in your Bible, Or if you have brackets around this section or you have notes referring to this section, if you look down in your footnotes, it'll probably say verses 9 through 20. It shouldn't be there. It should just be gone. You can just disregard it because they'll say this is not scripture. Well, starting with verse number 9, and when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven devils. We're talking about the resurrection. This is a doctrinal issue. This is a very important issue. And she went and told them that had been with him as they mourned and wept, and they, when they had heard that he was alive and had been seen of her, believed not. After that he appeared in another form unto two of them as he walked and went into the country, and they went and told it unto the residue, neither believed they them. Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. And he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Are these issues, are these topics that are mentioned in these verses, are they not doctrinal issues? They are very important issues for us to understand. Acts 8, verse 37. And it's interesting, if you ask, there's a lot of newer versions as they write the scriptures, as they They organize the pages, many of them are in paragraph form. And so it's a little harder to find necessarily a particular verse because it's just a paragraph and they'll have the numbers written within the paragraph, but not along the side like most King James Bibles are written with each verse. And so you ask them to read a verse such as Acts 8, and verse number 37. And they'll turn to it, and they'll start reading. Verse number 36, and as they went on their way, they came into a certain water, and the eunuch said, see, here's water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And he commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized them. That's what they'll read in their version. And they won't realize, wait, it just skipped from 36 to 38. Where's verse 37? They don't just leave a space there. It's just left out. It's just omitted. Verse number 37, And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest, and he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That's a great doctrinal issue. So these are important issues. If these verses are not meant to be in God's Word, then we ought to throw the King James Bible away, because someone's adding to God's word. If those words are not supposed to be there, then we better not use the King James Bible. If they are supposed to be there, we better be careful about other verses, we ought to throw them away, because someone's taking away from God's word. 1 John 5, verse 7 deals with eternity. A lot of other scriptures that, 147 other verses, there's significant portions that are missing. So there's 45 entire verses, 147 other verses that there's significant portions missing from those verses. There's such things taken out that take away from the deity of Christ, take away or change words such as 1 Timothy 3 verse 16 which says that God was manifest in the flesh. It'll say that he was manifest in the flesh. Jehovah's Witnesses in their Bible, the New World Translation, they change it to He was manifest in the flesh. Or who's He? It's God. God was manifest in the flesh. But they can't have God was manifest in the flesh. That completely destroys their doctrine of who Jesus is, that Jesus is not God. Why do so many other versions also have He was manifest in the flesh? There's a lot of key doctrines that are are affected by taking these words out of Scripture. It's not just a matter of these and those, which we'll get to in just a bit. But in the past 70 years, there's been just all kinds of Bible versions in English that have been have been translated, some popular, some not so popular. You have the ones that we think about, maybe, or some that we've heard about. The Revised Standard Version, New American Standard Bible, Modern King James Bible, Living Bible, Amplified Bible, Jerusalem Bible, maybe refer to some of those. King James II Version, the Bible in Living English, Today's English Version, the Simple English Bible, the New Accurate Translation, the Christian Community Bible Translation, the Revised English Bible, the Simplified Living Bible, the Message New Testament, Contemporary English Version, the New International Readers Version, New International Version Inclusive Language Edition, The Bible for today's family, I'm not reading all of them, just various verses. In the last 12 years, there's been at least 16 new versions, maybe more, 16 that I could find. It wasn't a really hot topic until the NIV came out. That's when it kind of became a bigger topic because for some reason, Those that called themselves fundamental Christians went over to the NIV. Of all translations, you would think, why the NIV? It's probably one of the worst translations. I would say it's one of the worst. There are some very bad translations. The Message Bible is a horrible Bible. But I'll say modern versions are horrible. I'll just blanket, I'll put that out there. Because they take away from God's word. And so that makes them horrible. But there are some that are worse than others. There are some that are good translations of that bad text. The NIV is a bad translation of that bad text. It's not even a good translation. They usually call dynamic equivalency, some of them. And the NIV does that, where they're not going to translate necessarily what the word says, but what's the idea? What's equivalent to that? Where the King James Bible might say that, that he ate meat in the morning. We say, well, that's breakfast. He ate breakfast. And so they'll put he ate breakfast. When the words are that he ate breakfast, he ate meat in the morning. That's just an example I'm coming up with, an example of what a translation could be. They'll just use what's equivalent. to what the words, what they think is equivalent to what the words mean. Well, I'd rather have what God's Word says and I'll let the Holy Spirit tell me what's equivalent to that, how it applies to my life. But there have been a lot of Baptists, a lot of fundamental, what they would call fundamental churches that have really supported modern Bibles and modern textual criticism, even those that at one time held to, the King James Bible held to even sound doctrine concerning the church. Think about the ABA and the BNA, that if you read their doctrinal statements, I haven't read one recently, so maybe they've changed this, but as far as their doctrinal statement on the church and other issues, you look at, read those, I would agree with that. And yet, they hold no standard for the word of God anymore. In fact, I believe in many of them on the doctrinal statements, usually most doctrinal statements, the first thing, the first statement made in a doctrinal statement will be about the Word of God. And with many of them, their first statement now is not about the Word of God because that's really not what they're basing their doctrine upon. So there are a lot of of those that would call themselves fundamentalists, and they may have some good writings out there on different topics, but when it comes to the King James Bible, one example in the introduction to the book, From the Mind of God to the Mind of Man, the editor is J.B. Williams, calls the defense of the King James Bible a cancerous sore that has resulted in a deplorable condition in fundamentalism. They describe the defense of the King James Bible a mass of misinformation. And so if you hold the King James Bible, you're labeled a Ruckmanite. And most people don't even know what a Ruckmanite is. They just, oh, if you hold the King James Bible, you must be a Ruckmanite. And they don't even know who that is or what he taught, what Ruckmanism even is. And so it's just a straw man argument against studying the issue themselves and coming to a proper conclusion. But there are a lot of misunderstandings concerning the King James Bible and the issue. It's not just a matter of old language and updated language. It's not just that issue. It's not just, you know, modern versions, you know, haven't, they've just changed words that haven't changed the doctrine. That's not true. They have changed doctrine. It's not just the difference between even the received text and the critical text that, you know, those differences are just really slight, doesn't really make a difference. No, they're huge, the differences between those two texts. It's not that the King James Bible is too difficult to understand. In fact, the King James Bible, on the scale of readability, is about six grades lower than the NIV. The NIV is labeled at an 11th and 12th grade reading. The King James is, I think, 6th to 7th grade reading. So it's not a matter of hard understanding. Are there words that are archaic, that aren't used in the same way? Certainly there are. How do you get around them? Look in the dictionary and figure out what those few words mean. Or you can go to the NIV and read through Daniel, and it'll talk about, instead of principalities, it'll talk about a prince. I can't remember the exact word. From the King James, that's translated satrap. Who in here knows what a satrap is? Anyone? So that's the kind of word, some words like that. It's not just a difference of, difficulty. It's not just an issue of holding to some pet doctrines or holding some outdated position. It's far greater than that. It's not just a matter of the these and the thous. And the these and the thous are important. These and thou's and he's and you's are different words speaking about different people. One great example is in, I don't remember the exact text, in Matthew, when Jesus said, Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. He wasn't saying, Peter, Satan wants you personally. Hussain had desired to have you, the church body, I'm addressing right now to you, Peter, but he wants the church. He wants to sift the church as wheat. But Peter, I prayed specifically for thee, and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. Very important, the thees and the thous, and the yous and the yees. And so when we come to this issue, we ought to come with some understanding that it's not a moot issue. It's something we ought to have a firm understanding about. One pastor said this, we have a clear choice between one of two diverging pathways, the road of faith or the road of human reason and unbelief. And that's the critical text. Those that hold that, they come from human reasoning and unbelief when they are trying to figure out What is the Word of God? He says, do we begin with the Word of God or do we begin with the Word of men? This is the question and it has, in the first instance, little to do with text but with the faithfulness of our God. For it to be of any use, textual study must be grounded upon what the Bible already says about itself. If we do not begin with the Word of God, we shall never end with it. And Westcott and Horde, they weren't coming with faith in the Word of God and trusting the Word of God. It's called the critical text. They were being critical. They were trying to compare things and trying to figure out by human reasoning what should the words be. They weren't coming at it from a place of of faith. But I must understand when I come to study this topic, when I come to study the Word of God, I need to believe that the Scriptures are sufficient. It's the Scriptures alone that are the rule of my faith and practice, and what does God's Word say about itself? The Bible contains everything that we need for faith and practice. It contains everything we need to make the believer perfect and thoroughly furnished into every good work, according to 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17. And we have the responsibility of His people to learn the truth for ourselves and to test everything by the Word of God. The Bereans were told that they were more noble because they searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so. We ought to take the responsibility upon ourselves to figure out what God's Word says about itself, not what men say about the Word of God. And what are their thoughts? Well, if they say that those verses shouldn't be there, then maybe I shouldn't read them. Maybe I shouldn't follow them. It comes from a place of of unbelief. We're to prove all things and hold fast that which is good. And the Bible teaches sound doctrine, and doctrine is easy to understand. We have the Holy Spirit within us, and we can trust the Holy Spirit to teach us as we seek his will, as we seek his word, as we seek to know his word. We can trust that he will teach us. It's not so complicated that we need some doctor of laws or some doctor of divinity or doctor of theology to explain it to us. We can go to the Word of God, and with the Holy Spirit within us, we can study the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit will teach us. We don't need a priest. We don't need some high-up bishop to tell us what to believe. what God's word says, what words should be there, what words should not be there. We can look in God's word and seek his will and he will teach us. And we ought to strive for that and understand that we have an enemy that desires to corrupt the word of God. We're told to be sober and be vigilant because our adversary, the devil, walks about seeking whom he may devour. And the first attack we have from, in the scripture of the devil's work in the life of men, is an attack on God's word. to question God's Word in Genesis 3 and to deny God's Word and to try to cause us to doubt what God's Word says. He does not want us to know what God's Word says. He wants us to doubt what God's Word says. He wants us to wonder. He wants us, when we quote it, to misquote it, to add things to it. As Eve said, she said, no, it's not only that we can't eat, we can't even touch it. She added to God's Word. The devil wants us to do those things because if we corrupt the Word of God, then we don't have that standard anymore. And so it's important that we understand this issue. The devil wants to substitute his own words for God's words. And if he can do that through popes or professors, and we can believe that, and he substitutes God's words for his words, then we are in sad shape. False religions, such as the Roman Catholic Church, they substitute really the devil's words for God's words. They have their extra-biblical traditions. They say such things as we believe in the Bible, but we also believe in our traditions and our councils and our popes. They have other things that they hold to. In Mark 7 verse 9 it speaks of those that made the commandment of God of none effect by their tradition. So we can't come to the word of God and just translate it however we want to translate it and put our traditions in there and just do away with what God's words actually said because he said we need to know his words. and he's told us that he'll preserve his words, so if he's going to preserve his words, then we can trust that we can find his words today. Brother Andrew is comparing, looking at foreign language translations, and he's taking a lot of these verses, some of the verses that maybe we looked at this evening earlier on that are just missing from of the newer English versions. He's looking at some of the foreign language versions, pulling up those scriptures and looking at those particular verses to see, did they skip those? Are they deleted? And he's just trying to find good versions in those other languages. In those other languages, many of them have the Word of God. preserved for them. Many of them, all they have is a corrupted version of God's Word. We ought to be very thankful and take the responsibility that God has given to us, has preserved His Word for us in English. And we ought to study it and protect it and contend for God's Word. In Psalm 138, verse number 2 again, He says, I will worship toward thy holy temple and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth, for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. And we're told that, you know, if we take God's name in vain, that we will be held accountable for that. He's magnified his word above his name. If God will not hold you guiltless for taking His name in vain, He's not going to hold you guiltless for corrupting His Word or denying His Word. In Proverbs 30, verse 6, it says, And Isaiah 66, it speaks about those whom the Lord will look to. He says, to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. Why would someone tremble at God's word? Because it's God's word. There's power there, there's authority there, and we ought to be very careful that we would corrupt it, that we would pervert it, that we would twist it to our own ends, that we would use it in order to support our own lifestyle, support our own thinking, We ought to be fearful that we know what God's words are and we do everything we can to preserve them and protect them and fashion our lives according to it. If you would take your Bibles and turn over to Revelation 22. Revelation 22. And we'll finish with this scripture tonight. Revelation 22 and verse number 18. It says, For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. If any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book. God takes his words seriously. And that's a warning that I consider Westcott and Hort, or a lot of the other critical Bible scholars, as they call themselves, those that are still alive, what a fearful thing it ought to be for them to read this passage. For those that are dead, I really fear for them. God does not take those that corrupt the Word of God, does not take that lightly. And we ought to have a desire to stand for the truth of God's Word. Tonight's message is just scraping the top of this issue, but it's just a reminder for us tonight of the importance of of the issue, and for your own sake, if you are wondering, if you just aren't sure, take it upon yourself to actually study the issue. I had one older gentleman in Fossil. He never did join the church. I believe he was a saved man, but he never would join the church because there were some issues. doctrinal issues that he just wouldn't hold to. He came all the time with, I believe it was a New American Standard Version. We started dealing with the Bible issue, the King James Bible issue, and he came to me after church one night, and actually it was one night after we had gone through that issue, he came back and he had a different Bible. He came up to me, he said, Pastor, he said, this is the closest thing you'll ever get me to be a Baptist. And he had a King James Bible. And I said, well, little by little, at least that's a start, that you're getting rid of that other Bible. But he became convicted. As he studied the issue himself, he just didn't take my words for it, but as he studied the issue, he realized my Bible is missing so many verses. And there's a lot of people today that use new versions, and they have no idea. They have no idea that verses are missing, often because it's written in that paragraph style. When you read the Bible, as you read through John 3, do you read verse 15? Do you mentally read the verses as you go? No, you just read the words. You don't even look at the verses. And so it's easy not to pay attention to what verse it is, but especially when it's in paragraph form, It's very easy to realize there's a whole verse missing here. And so a lot of them don't even realize that there's even an issue when there is a huge issue. Let's all stand together.